Field
The disclosed embodiments relate to content delivery. More specifically, the disclosed embodiments relate to techniques for using groups of user accounts to deliver content to electronic devices using local caching servers.
Related Art
Recent improvements in computing power and wireless networking technology have significantly increased the capabilities of electronic devices. For example, laptop computers, tablet computers, portable media players, smart phones, digital media receivers, video game consoles, wearable computing devices, and/or other modern computing devices are often equipped with personal area network interfaces (Bluetooth, infrared, near-field communications, etc.), local area network interfaces (e.g., WiFi, Ethernet, etc.) and/or wide area network interfaces (cellular voice/data, the Internet, etc.) that allow the computing devices to retrieve web pages, stream audio and/or video, share desktops and/or user interfaces (UIs), and/or transfer files wirelessly.
The increases in the capabilities of electronic devices have enabled the expansion of numerous usage aspects of the electronic devices. For example, the amount of content delivered to electronic devices via downloading, streaming, or otherwise accessing content over networks (generally, “digital content delivery”) has significantly increased in the last few years. Users of electronic devices regularly download music, movies, pictures, books, software updates, and/or applications from Internet-based content providers and/or content delivery networks to the electronic devices. The increase in digital content delivery, while an improvement in the ease of acquiring content, can cause problems for electronic device users, network hosts, and/or content providers. For example, consider a school (e.g., grades K-12, college, etc.) that would like for students to download digital textbooks. Often, schools have limited Internet access (e.g., access caps, etc.). Because digital textbooks are typically incorporated in large files (a gigabyte or more), downloading a digital textbook places an appreciable load on the school's network. Multiply this effect times hundreds or thousands of textbooks, and the overall impact on the network access for the school can be prohibitive (can restrict bandwidth for other uses, exceed caps, etc.). Consequently, delivery of content to large numbers of electronic devices using the same Internet connection may negatively impact the deployment and/or usage of the electronic devices.
As another example of the increased use of electronic devices, some devices provide services for using local network connections (personal area networks, local area networks, etc.) between devices to exchange digital content from device to device (e.g., to transfer pictures, documents, audio files, etc. between devices). In such devices, one of the devices may function as a provider (master device, hub, server, communication partner, etc.), enabling other devices to connect to the provider and download or otherwise acquire the digital content from the provider. However, while useful for acquiring digital content, providing such a service in a location where undesired devices can connect to the provider and acquire content from the provider (e.g., a coffee shop, a school, an apartment complex, etc.) can lead to the undesired devices inappropriately acquiring the digital content.
In the figures, like reference numerals refer to the same figure elements.